


A Concussion, A Car Ride, and A Hotel Room

by Noxnoctisanima



Category: Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon, Protective boys, can be read as pre-OT3, what happened after the finale?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 00:38:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13042881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noxnoctisanima/pseuds/Noxnoctisanima
Summary: The series ended us on a cliffhanger, but what really happened to Beth Griffith?





	A Concussion, A Car Ride, and A Hotel Room

**Author's Note:**

  * For [outruntheavalanche](https://archiveofourown.org/users/outruntheavalanche/gifts).



_Three_

 

_Two_

 

_One_

 

_Bang_

 

“We are receiving reports of an officer-involved shooting on Market Street. Reports are still unclear but it appears that a white man in his 30’s or 40’s has been shot by a plain-clothed police officer.” The woman’s voice was calm and measured as she broke into the traffic report.  

 

Rawlins grinned at Beth, slowly lowering the gun. “You got close there girly. Seems like he might have cared for you a little more than you’d thought.” His breath was fetid as he leant close. “Maybe he wasn’t as moral as you thought he was.” He stood back up straight. “Can’t be too trusting though, I really must check.”

 

He let the gun fall down to his side as he fished out a cell phone, dialled a number and held it to his ear. There was a long moment of quiet where Beth could hear the ringing of the phone and wondered who was on the other end. She only hoped they did not ruin whatever misdirection had been devised. She could imagine no world where Sam Cooper would kill an innocent.

 

The ringing stopped abruptly and a man’s voice answered, too distorted by distance for Beth to recognise, but his identity became clear as Rawlins spoke.

 

“Ahh, how strange Agent Cooper that you would be answering Richard’s phone.” Beth could see the smug grin spread across his face. “Did you enjoy shooting him? I’m sure he enjoyed dying. It’s all he’s wanted to do since he was a little kid.” He glanced over at Beth. “She’s perfectly fine. A little bit of a headache from her knock over the head but nothing permanent.” He started to move around the room, obviously weighing things as he spoke. “You did your part and now I’ll do mine.” He smiled maliciously, Beth knew Coop would hear it through the line. “I’ll be interested to see how things turn out for you Agent Cooper. I’ll be keeping track.”

 

He flipped the phone shut and smiled at Beth as he put it on the floor next to her.

 

“Do you think I left it long enough for them to trace?” He shrugged. “Nevermind, they’ll find their way here easily enough now they know who they’re really looking for.”

 

He walked out of sight behind her and she tensed, unable to act but her body responding anyway. He walked back into view with a duffle bag slung over his shoulder.

 

“I don’t think you quite understand what I’ve done here. Give it a few weeks. Wait to see how it drags on him. That’s the part I really like.”

 

He walked out of the room and Beth heard a door open, then shut and an engine start in the garage. She heard it pull out and onto the road before tyres screeched and doors slammed and she was stuck tied to a chair while someone was shot on the street.

 

She didn’t she had ever been so relieved to hear someone breaking a door down.

 

“Beth!”  

 

“Prophet!”

 

She could hear them clear the rooms and then three sets of footsteps in the doorway behind her. Gina suddenly appeared in front of her and then Mick and Prophet on either side, kneeling down to cut the ropes holding her hands.

 

“How did you trick him?” Prophet looked up at her and she quirked an eyebrow. “I’m assuming Coop didn’t actually shoot someone.”

 

“Garcia set up a fake news broadcast. She sent it live as soon as we realised we had the wrong address.” Mick replied as he finished sawing through the rope. She decided never to tell them how close the broadcast came to being too late.

 

“Rawlings?” Beth felt compelled to ask though she was sure she knew the answer.

 

“Dead,” Prophet answered, finishing his own rope and rubbing the red skin at her wrist.

 

“Stahl?”

 

“In custody. Coop put him down and took his phone before Rawlings could call. He’ll go for a psych eval before they arraign him.” Gina answered, still untying her feet.

 

Both men tried to steady her when Gina finally released her feet and she stood out of the chair. She waved them off until she almost stumbled and then they each took an arm, holding her steady.

 

“You’ve got a concussion,” Prophet commented dryly into her ear as she tried to shrug them off again.

 

“I’ve just been tied up for a while, my feet are numb.”

 

Mick scoffed on her other side.

 

“Beth, you were knocked unconscious. You’ve got a concussion. Let us walk you out or I’ll have the paramedics come and take you out on a stretcher.”

 

She turned and met his gaze but he only quirked an eyebrow at her. He absolutely would, the bastard.

 

“Fine. But just help, I don’t need to be half carried like I’m an invalid.”

 

They chose not to comment when she wavered in her feet again as she stepped forward.

 

She tried to complain as they directed her to the ambulance, but as they seemed very disinclined to let go of her and had her outnumbered, she didn’t have a lot of choices.

 

Gina peeled off as Mick and Prophet released her to the paramedics, from the conversation she was having Beth now knew who had shot Rawlings. She expected either Mick or Prophet to follow her but they both just stood at the back of the ambulance and watched as the paramedic asked her repetitive and irritating questions while his partner poked increasingly sore parts of her head.

 

“I’m not going to the hospital.” Beth thought she should make it clear as they were starting to make noises about brain scans and overnight observation.

 

Mick opened his mouth to object at almost the same moment the paramedic did. Beth put up her hand to stop both of them.

 

“I have a headache because someone whacked me over the head. I will be fine after a long shower, a handful of painkillers and some sleep. I do not have a brain haemorrhage.” She turned towards the paramedic. “I will sign myself out AMA. Just get me the paperwork. I do not want to be here anymore.”

 

It took a long argument that even Gina came back over to get involved in but eventually, Beth collected her signed papers and stood off the back of the ambulance.

 

“I am going back to the hotel now, you can either drive me or I will drive myself.” They all seemed to forget that she did not, in fact, have car keys but she wasn’t going to point that out to them when they were finally letting her get out of there.

 

Mick handed the keys off to Gina and Beth only sighed as Mick and Prophet followed her into the backseat. Their presence beside her was comforting though, it had been a while since she’d had someone so close. She drifted a little in the car but she supposed whatever Rawlings had used to keep her out was still in her system. She wasn’t an idiot. There was no way she was out for long enough for him to transport her all the way to the house. That, and the taste of pennies made her think he’d probably chloroformed her when she was already knocked out. She could feel Prophet’s eyes on her face as she flinched out of a doze and she met his gaze with raised eyebrows. He shook his head at her with a huff and doubled the pressure of his shoulder against hers for a moment.

 

Gina turned around in her seat as they pulled up to the hotel.

 

“I’ve got to go give my statement about the shooting so we can get out of here tomorrow. I’ll bring Coop back with me, he’s interviewing Stahl.”

 

It surprised Beth a little when neither Mick or Prophet went with her and instead bundled her off into the hotel.

 

Beth had spent a lot of her time in hotels and had come into them in all kinds of states but she didn’t think she’d ever been as pleased to see a hotel room door as she was at that moment.

 

Prophet opened the door and the first thing she did was sit down heavily on the bed. If she just swung her feet up she could sleep and for a split second, she didn’t care how dirty she was. Her eyes drifted for a moment and then Mick’s hand on her shoulder brought her back.

 

“You’ll regret not showering.”

 

She would.

 

It still took a lot to stand up.

 

She stood there, waiting for them to excuse themselves but they also stood there, just looking at her.

 

“Right, you can go. I need to shower.” She finally broke.

 

“No way in hell.” Was Mick’s reply as he made himself comfortable in the uncomfortable desk chair.

 

She blinked at him. “What?”

 

“You signed yourself out AMA but that doesn’t mean we trust that there’s nothing wrong with you. Go shower, we’ll wait out here.” Prophet, leaning up against the wall, nodded in agreement.

 

Presumptuous assholes, she thought, fondly, despite herself.

 

“Well, if you insist on sticking around you can order me some dinner and find some painkillers.”

 

She hadn’t enjoyed a shower as much in years, though her head throbbed and she wanted nothing more than to already be asleep. It was a truly mammoth effort to get back out of the shower but by the time she was dressed she had heard the door open and close and the clink of cutlery.

 

Prophet was laying the food out on the room’s tiny table and Mick guided her to a seat before placing two tablets and a glass of water in her hand. She saluted him with it before tossing the pills down. She looked at him while she picked up her cutlery.

 

“I really am okay. You don’t have to do this.”

 

“We’ll leave if you really want.” Prophet shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable.

 

Beth sighed internally.

 

“I never said I didn’t like being waited on hand and foot but you don’t _have_ to do it.”

 

“Darling, no one has ever made me do what I don’t want to.” Mick’s smile was smug and enticing.

 

“I am so relieved to hear that Mick.” She replied dryly as Prophet laughed quietly. “Sit down then and stop hovering, it makes eating uncomfortable.”

 

He sat, but she could still feel the both of them watching her as she washed down her pasta with a glass of water. In a lot of ways, they were the most simple of the team. Prophet was feeling guilty she had been taken while they were together and Mick was suddenly acutely aware of every sightline and every danger. She supposed they would like to think of themselves as complex, but they were a children’s book with simple pictures. She finished the last of her water before finally placing her glass in front of her.

 

“Are you satisfied yet that I have not collapsed while showering and eating and that my headache is much better actually?” She looked up from her food and met each of their gazes in turn. “I need to sleep and neither of you are going to sit here and watch me.”

 

She was both amused and horrified when they tried to argue. She stood from the chair and shooed them towards the doorway.

 

“If you get out now I’ll let you check in on me every two hours. But I’m adding another hour to that for every minute you keep arguing with me.” After a long moment, they both stepped over the threshold and she closed the door in their face.

 

“I’ll see you in two hours!” Mick’s voice was muffled through the door. Beth shook her head slowly and then fell headlong into bed.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I tried to have the relationship for you but they were being difficult. I hope you can read it like the pre-OT3 it was written as.


End file.
